


I drowned in water that was blue (But you came and it became purple)

by itsjustnoise



Series: We were never meant to meet (But we did) [3]
Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:34:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22666333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsjustnoise/pseuds/itsjustnoise
Summary: Jungeun likes to think that the water holds many different meanings for her. She likes to think that her memories are hiding in every drop.
Relationships: Jung Jinsol | Jinsoul/Kim Jungeun | Kim Lip
Series: We were never meant to meet (But we did) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1630645
Comments: 5
Kudos: 52





	I drowned in water that was blue (But you came and it became purple)

Jinsol had always loved the water. There was just something about it that drew her in, she could never explain why when anybody asked. Her mother would often have to knock on the doors to the bathroom hours after her only daughter disappeared through it. More often then not, Jinsol was splashing in her once tepid bath water, soap suds all but gone. "What are you doing? You'll catch a chill!" Her mother would chastise, draping her blue towel over her head and rubbing the dry cloth over limp ebony locks till they were damp. Jinsol hated it, why take away something she loved so much. Three year old Jinsol could not understand her mother, so she liked spending more time with her father instead. Her father had loved fishing when she was growing up and everyday, when the weather was good, he would head out to the still lake in the middle of the woods to fish. 5 year old Jinsol would cry till her parents relented and and giggle when she finally jumped onto the sturdy red wood. Jinsol had always loved the water. So, she wasn't scared when she drowned. In school, she had learnt from her teacher that the ocean sparkled cerulean, the rivers ran a light azure and the streams bubbled arctic lapis. Water was blue, her favourite colour, and black, she would later find out as she got further and further from the surface. Because light never reached the depths of the lake. But when she sank, the only colour Jinsol could see was red.

When Jungeun had opened her eyes after the fire, the first thing she realised was that she was no longer in her burning ship but in a white empty room. The second was that there was no more scorching heat, her lungs were not clogged with smoke and soot. And the third was that there was a girl with cat-like eyes watching her from the corner of the room. As she struggles to sit up, the girl frowns and crosses her arms. "It's you." She sneers and Jungeun feels her eyebrows furrow in confusion, her mind moving sluggishly slow. "Do I..." Her throat felt like sandpaper, as if her tongue was parched by the heat of the midday sun. "Do I know you?" A beat, and Jungeun briefly wonders if the girl heard her at all. Then, "No," she sighs and stands up. Only then does Jungeun see the yellow cat mask hidden behind long black hair at the side of her neck. She moves to stand in front of Jungeun, crouching down when it becomes apparent that Jungeun was too weak to move. She places a hand on Jungeun's throat and all at once the exhaustion evaporates. "Tha-" "I'm Hyunjin. Yes, you are dead. Yes, this is your road to reincarnation. You're a spirit now, so nobody can see you or hear you. You cannot interfere with the lives of the living or you will cease to exist. Do you have anymore questions?" Jungeun blinks, trying to take everything in. But she has always been quick on her feet, she had to be, to have survived so long in a male dominated world. "Why me?" She sees the bright yellow flowing around Hyunjin's arms darken and flare out so suddenly, she recoils out of instinct. Hyunjin levels her with sharp brown eyes that spoke more than she ever could, the yellow energy still whipping so quickly around her, Jungeun feels cold sweat break out at the back of her neck. "You're the reason my sister no longer exists."

Hyunjin disappears soon after that, leaving all the questions burning on Jungeun's tongue unanswered. And the white room fades into a forest that was deep in the throes of autumn. Jungeun stands on shaky feet, leaning against the trunk of the nearest tree for support as she looks around. She has never seen so many trees in her life before, she only remembers the sea for miles and miles and the occasional call of a lone seagull. The only trees she knew were beach palms and even those were few and far between. It is cool here too, every exhale a far cry from the briny air she used to inhale from the ocean. Jungeun watches in mild fascination as her breath escapes her lips and condenses right in front of her eyes, a pale cloud rising up and above the towering treeline. She no longer smells salt and sweat, Jungeun is surrounded by the sharp smells of rotting leaves and sweet fermenting fruit and she keeps walking on a road of decomposing flora, in its shades of brown, yellow and red. There is a hoot somewhere to her left and Jungeun looks up. An owl stares back at her, sunset yellow pupils large and unblinking. An eagle owl, she remembers the majestic creature, plumage a deep tawny hickory, perched in a gilded silver cage in one of the ships she had boarded off the coast. She counts 10 seconds in her mind and then, it pushes off from the branches and flies off into the darkening sky. Jungeun briefly wonders what it would feel like to fly, all her life she has only known the ocean. Then, there is a weight at the base of her neck and when her hand shoots up to take the mask off, she realises she can't. But she just knows that it's an exact replica of the eagle owl she just saw. And maybe, Jungeun thinks to herself as she continues trudging foward with no destination in mind, she might finally know how it feels like to fly.

Jungeun saves Jinsol when she is five, she drops into the water suddenly, like the ripened fruits on the low hanging branches in late spring, scaring Jungeun out of her mindless drifting in gentle undercurrents, so different from their counterparts from the ocean. She remembers seeing Jinsol's tiny body sink past her, comically slow in waters churning with the unknown. 'She's so young.' Jungeun thinks as she dives down after her, remembers trying to recall the last time she had ever seen another person so deep in the forest. But Jungeun has already lost count of the many autumns that had gone past while she resided in this forest, she could no longer recall the face of her first mate or the cabin boy, it has been too long since she bothered about the past. We don't age, she was told by another spirit she met, almost a week into her mindless walking through the trees. Even now a white bird circles overhead, Jungeun can still feel her worry even so far below surface. She gets to the girl just before the shadows at the bottom of the lake do and flaring crimson lights whip out almost threateningly as she cradles the young girl close to her chest. The shadows flinch and scuttle back into their crevices as Jungeun shoots up, bubbles rising from the sudden change in pressure. Haseul cries when she breaks the black surface and instantly, her father is there, hauling his daughter back into the boat.

Jungeun sees the girl cough once, twice and holds her breath. And when she finally spits out the water that filled her lungs and takes a shaky breath in, Jungeun finds herself mirroring her unsure inhale, it was almost like she had forgotten how to breathe. Haseul swoops down low, her wings brush past Jungeun and she takes it as her cue to leave. But she loiters at the edge of the lake, kicking at smooth pebbles and rolling back rougher stones. Until the girl and her father are long gone, the only trace of the beat up pick up truck were the tire tracks in smooth, water-worn gravel. She doesn't recognise this girl at all, it is her first time seeing her but why did her body react like Jungeun had known this human child her entire life? Jungeun scratches her cheek as Haseul lands on a branch somewhere behind her. "She seems familiar to me." Haseul cocks her head to the side and chirps," Maybe you'll remember one day."

Jinsol spend the first few weeks in her new school sitting quietly by the trees, studiously sketching the marine animals that decorated the back of the clsssroom. Nobody knew how to approach her to play at first and the first one who did was immediately turned away with a bright smile and a sharp shake of her head. A fish out of water, the children in her new school would tease her and Jungeun was scared that Jinsol would cry, her lower lip was trembling in that way that Jungeun now associates with the inevitable waterworks. So she braces herself, red energies flicking about in annoyance and waits. But the tears never come. Instead, Jinsol breaks out into the brightest smile she has ever seen. "Thanks!" She laughs and goes back to doodling in her notebook. The children are surprised, Jungeun doesn't blame them. It was their every intention to hurt her, although they were young, she knew never to underestimate the malice she had once exprienced. They had expected Jinsol to burst into tears, feed their laughter and pity, they had not counted on Jinsol to laugh. Jungeun feels her chest swell with pride. Jinsol bites the inside of her cheek, concentrating on the little eagle owl she was drawing, Jungeun could see the beginings of the horns, her fingers subconciously reach her mask and they absentmindedly start tracing the feathers on the edge.

But then one of the kids comes closer and Jungeun realises too late what was about to happen. Jinsol's notebook flies into the air, her face a perfect picture of shock, pencil frozen in a tight grip. "Hey, Fish," the boy was taunting, standing right in front of Jinsol now. "Pay more attention to us would you?" Heat surges in Jungeun's veins as she watches the exchange, and she lets it collect in her palm. She glows red hot, not unlike magma, and a scarlet tendril whips out and around the snorting boys, searing a crimson mark on their wrists. There were screams of pain and horror, the teacher was running out of the building and towards them and Jungeun belatedly realised that the birds had gone silent. "What happened?" The teacher demands, glaring at all of them. "She burned us!" One of the boy blubbers through tears and snot and Jungeun almost sears him again. But then she hears a sniffle from behind her and immediately turns back to Jinsol, whose big black eyes were shining with unshed tears, whose gaze had never left her notebook lying half drowned in a puddle. The teacher sighs tiredly and gathers the 5 boys, telling them to follow her. But before she leaves, she squats down to Jinsol's level and asks her a question so quietly, Jungeun almost missed it. "Are you okay?" And Jinsol nods, scrubbing at her face with the sleeve of her sweather. The teacher purses her lips when she returns to the boys and Jungeun barely resists burning them again for good measure.

Jinsol stands up, still sniffling and makes her way to her notebook, the other kids staying well out of her way. The paper once pristine and smooth, now was soaked and crumpled, stained brown and black and grey, from the dirty water that it had fallen into. The page that she had drawn the eagle owl, the regal bird, had been torn into two. Jinsol frowns hard and holds the notebook in gentle fingers that trembled, silently walking back to her classroom. Jungeun trails behind like a lost puppy, body thrumming with red energy. She sees Jinsol place the notebook beside her table, carefully opening the pages so they could dry properly. Then she places her head in her arms and closes her eyes. Gravity causes the water to pool by the base of the book, Jungeun likens it to Jinsol's tears. 'Do something!' Jungeun hears her mind screaming at her. So she does, allowing a soft ruby gleam to wrap around the wet pages. When Jinsol hears the bell and lifts her head up, the pages, although still stained with barely there hints of dirt, were already dry. And the page with the eagle owl torn into two had magically fixed itself, bright eyes staring back at Jinsol as she flipped through the pages in wonder. "It's warm." She murmurs to herself more than anything as she runs a finger down the spine of the book. And she blinks when she catches a hint of red at the corner of her eye. But when she looks up, there was nobody there.

"You're back," Haseul sings to her when she finally manages to pull herself up onto the tree's highest branches. "I thought you would have stayed with her for longer." Jungeun hums, a little out of breath, as she watches a tiny mouse scurry out of its home in the bushes. When the last drops red had left her fingers, Jungeun suddenly sees herself back on her ship, feels the heat from her hands transform into the searing yellow light of the midday sun in the middle of the ocean. The captain is staring at her with unreadable eyes, the crew jeering and spitting at her. She screws her eyes shut because she knows exactly what day this was, it was one she tried so hard to erase from her memory. "So," the captain begins, his blue eyes glinting like the cutlass strapped to his side, "you're a girl." A woman on a ship was bad luck, every sailor worth his salt knew that. Jungeun knew that too, her mother had died while giving birth to her on board a ship, she had only survived because her father had been kind enough to abandon her at the nearest port they could find. But she swallows back her insecurities and stares the captain dead in the eye. "Yes." The captain blinks and the slurs get louder. "Keep her cap! She can keep our cots warm!" "She can be our slave!" Jungeun watches herself force her heart to still, knowing full well that to be her fate, if the captain didn't ask her to walk the plank.

"Why did you board our ship?" The captain's hands drift to rest on the handle of his cutlass and Jungeun swallows again. But then she sees a flash of bleached blond, brighter than the sun, whiter than the sands of the Carribean, and Jinsol is there, older and taller than her, a hand around the captain's own, the other curled into a tight, trembling fist. Jungeun remembers how she had felt a wash of cool but had chalked it up to nerves and fear. Blue energy floats around her and the crew, Jungeun watches it enter the captain's eyes, his ice blue darkening to navy for only just a moment. The calm waves start increasing in intensity, slapping the sides of the ship like a reminder. Jungeun sees how Jinsol's jaw tighten, the blue now floating to the crews' eyes and the rumbles of discontent slowly quieten to a murmur. "I have nowhere else to go." Jungeun hears herself say and the captain nods. "Very well. You may stay on with us then." He fixes a steely glare at his men. "And you all will respect her, am I clear?" The sailors rumble their agreement and Jungeun finds herself breathing out a sigh of relief in time with her past self. But then she sees Jinsol's form flicker for just a moment before she lets go of the captain's arm and turns to face Jungeun. The captain was saying something but all Jungeun could focus on was the way her eyes shone and the tired but contented smile on Jinsol's face. It was as beautiful as the setting sun. Then she was turning away and jumping back into the ocean. And Jungeun blinks, finally registering redwoods and the white bird next to her. Haseul regards with knowing eyes her when she turns her head. "It's good to start remembering."

Jungeun resolves to watch over Jinsol like how she had watched over her in her past life. It wasn't hard, after the notebook incident, the teacher had talked to the entire class and nobody bothered her again. But that also meant she had no friends, nobody wanted to befriend the weird girl who sat by herself and drew in the quiet. Jungeun had worried about how Jinsol would react to this, she sat beside her desk the entire day. But Jinsol didn't mind having no friends and at the end of the day when her father came to pick her up from school, Jungeun recognises that the smile she gave her father was a real one, one that shone like the setting sun. Her time in elementary school passed in a blink of an eye and Jungeun found herself once again following Jinsol through another set of school doors, the crest of her middle school carved on it. Nothing changes, Jinsol still keeps to herself, sits by the trees and draws more realistic looking creatures on better paper. But one animal remained constant among the many others that came and went. Jungeun tries not to count the number of times she sees an eagle owl take shape on the sketchbook. It seemed almost intimate, the way Jinsol drew the very animal that was tied to Jungeun's own existence. It was almost as if Jinsol was trying to perfect it. Jungeun would lose Jinsol in the forest almost every other day, she was determined to find a eagle owl.

Like today, Jungeun walks around the fields, just below the window of Jinsol's last class. Calculus didn't intrest her the slightest, she hated numbers and the monotonous drone of the balding professor. But it was Jinsol's favourite class, she's always been at the top. Jungeun sighs as the final bell rings and hears the school almost rumble to life, the scraping of metal chairs on tiled floors and the thundering of students rushing for their extracurriculars always made Jungeun flinch, she's secretly glad Jinsol doesn't participate in any of them. But sweaty children aside, Jungeun still waits for a familiar head to walk out of the school gates and into the forest. She trails behind Jinsol again, amusing herself by stepping exactly where Jinsol had, the only difference was that Jungeun's footprints might never have existed. The birds sing quietly all aroud them and Jungeun sees the tiny woodland creatures peek out of their burrows, all wanting to see the girl that trailed cool blue and the spirit that brought with her searing red. Jinsol walks slowly, eyes bright with childish wonder, almost as if she was exploring this forest for the first time. There is a rustle high up in the trees somewhere, followed by a soft hoot that Jungeun hears a second too late. Jinsol freezes and scans the treeline, searching the owl she now knows is there. But even after being chosen to embody the bird, Jungeun still startles terribly when bright yellow eyes appear out of the sea of browns and reds, it is jarring enough to force out a tiny scream that Jungeun will deny loudly later on.

Jinsol, however, merely smiles and takes careful steps closer. The eagle owl looks down at the both of them and cocks it head, Jungeun has seen Haseul do that too many times to not know what it means. "It's okay, she just wants to draw you. She means no harm." She says, hoping the owl understands. And when it flies to a lower branch, closer to Jinsol's head and closes its eyes, Jungeun whispers a soft thank you to its slumbering form. She settles herself beside the girl, letting her red energy curl around Jinsol, before closing her eyes. The wind was getting stronger, Jungeun can smell the imminent rain but she still closes her eyes for a quick nap. The next time Jungeun wakes, it's to a sudden clap of thunder overhead. She opens her eyes just in time to see the owl startle and fly off, scared by the loud crack across the sky. Jinsol sighs and curses under her breath, throwing her sketchpad and pencils into her bag. When she stands, the first drops of rain have already started falling from the sky. "Shit." Jungeun hears her growl and when the rain just gets heavier and Jinsol doesn't move, she understands why. Follow me, she wants to say, I know the way out. But Jinsol cannot hear her. Thunder rolled overhead, the sky was just a backdrop of grey and white lightning seemed to split the sky in two. And Jungeun follows Jinsol as she races through the trees, getting further and further away from where she had entered.

"Jinsol!" Jungeun shouts through the roar of the thunderstorm but the girl just takes another step away. There's a cold feeling crawling up Jungeun's spine, like a million spiders made of ice that suddenly started their journey up from her ankles. "Jinsol!" She cries, reaching fowards desperately but her hand hovers a hair's breath over Jinsol's rain slicked arms. The uncomfortable chill refuses to disappear. Then there is another crack above them, one that had nothing to do with the thunder and lightning crashing through the sky. Jinsol looks up too late and Jungeun throws caution to the wind, her dry fingers closing over Jinsol's arm and misses the way she flinches away from the sudden warmth. Jungeun yanks her back and Jinsol practically collapses into her arms, the branch that lands where she just stood still smoldering from where the lightning had struck it. For a second, everything is quiet and still, the storm sounded so far away and all Jungeun could see were Jinsol's ebony eyes shining with something she couldn't quite place. But then the lightning flashes somewhere close by and the moment is broken, Jinsol stumbling a little from the intensity of it. Jungeun reaches foward, driven by pure instinct to steady her but freezes in her place when Jinsol rubs her arms. "Warm." She murmurs and there is a strange sound in Jungeun's ears, like the cry of gulls that signal an oncoming storm.

But she shakes her head to rid herself of the memory, Jinsol's safety came first. So she reaches out her red tentatively, and sees how Jinsol moves towards it without a second thought. "Okay then, follow me." She mutters and starts walking towards the treeline. The rain seemed to have increased in its intensity, Jungeun could barely see three feet in front of her, the gray sheet of the storm reducing her viability to almost nothing. She reminds herself that she shouldn't be letting Jinsol be aware of her presence but Jungeun cannot help how her red curls towards the shivering girl behind her. When they finally reach the edge of the forest, she hears Jinsol mumble something under her breath before the girl is dashing towards the safety of the school, Jungeun knows that she will get a sound scolding from her mother later on. But for now, she watches silently as Jinsol glances back to the forest, back at her, before turning to push open the school's doors. As the the wooden doors swing shut behind her, Jungeun hears the crying of the gulls again. She shakes her head and turns back as well, walking back into the forest to find somewhere quiet to think. But through the rain, the cries only get louder in her ears.

Jungeun remembers the lashing of the rain against her face, spits salt water and grains of sand violently from her mouth with every inhale. The crew was shouting all around her, a mad scramble of hands and legs, trying to be heard above the storm. She suddenly feels so lost, and when someone pushes past her, Jungeun instantly falls. The first storm was never easy for anyone and she has never felt so cold. But it is the booming shout of the captain that eventually snaps her out of her daze. "Get inside!" He orders and Jungeun sees his eyes flash alongside the lightning overhead. She turns immediately and crashes into something, losing her footing before she feels a pressure on her arm. Jinsol is there, a warm hand wrapped around her forearm, grip insistent but silent. Jungeun gasps, because she remembers that moment in exact detail. In the next moment, the sail swings precariously and Jungeun watches Jinsol shove her down, the pole barely grazing past where her head had been. Jungeun knows that it was the rocking of the ship that had caused her to fall, that it was only by another miraculous jerk by the turbulent waves that helped her right her balance. "Girl!" The captain screams again and Jungeun scrabbles on slippery wood, eventually reaching the metal handle of the door. She wrenches it open and throws herself through, slamming the battered wood shut behind her. The sound of the storm dulls somewhat through the dark wood and Jungeun sees Jinsol glowing a soft blue in the dark of the hallway. Her mouth was moving and despite straining her ears, Jungeun cannot hear her. In desperation, she reaches a hand towards her mouth and suddenly she hears, 'stay safe' before the darkness envelopes them all and she's thrown back into the present.

After this memory, Jungeun never lets Jinsol out of her sight. She watches Jinsol grow up, looking more and more like the spirit that had protected her in her last life. And she watches her fall deeper in love with the water, joining the swim team in her school and swimming in the lake on the weekends. The lake becomes the place where Haseul would go to find Jungeun. "You're always here." She chrips, perched on a thin branch just out of Jungeun's reach. Junguen hums, fingers twirling a stick back and forth, in time with Jinsol as she breaks the still surface of the lake. She was leaving in a week's time, for some far away school whose name Jungeun had not bothered to remember. She always knew that Jinsol's love for water would take her away from her, she would not allow herself to feel anything but happiness for her. Haseul ruffles her feathers like she knows and falls silent again, pecking at something in her wing. Then suddenly, Jinsol does not come up for air and Jungeun feels her mind go blank. It is Haseul's shrill cry, not unlike the captain's growl, that shocks her into action. Jungeun doesn't think, just dives. And the dark water explodes into colour around her. Magenta, vermillion, ruby and crimson is all that she can see and it is with that scarlet light that she finds Jinsol sinking down, down, down. Bubbles explode around her as she kicks towards the girl, her red flaring so brilliantly, she feels all the animals near her disappear. But the shadows were hungry this time, they wanted the energy of the blue girl, the one protected by red. Desperate, Jungeun screams in the murky water, willing her light to just reach her, please.

This time, she is the slower one and Jungeun's red whips at nothing but bubbles as the shadows drag Jinsol deeper still. Save my sister, Jungeun vauguely hears ringing in her ears. Save her, save her, save her like she saved you. And suddenly, she sees yellow wrap around her red, watches the light extend to the shadows, chasing them away. The shadows recoil, almost as if they were burnt and as Jungeun wraps a hand around Jinsol's arm, she watches them slither back into the blackness of the lake bed. The flaxen gold dissipates from her vision as she kicks upwards now, only red curling around Jinsol, flicking out all around her. When they break the surface, Jungeun sees a group of people by the shoreline, and a man jumps into the water, swimming towards them. A shadow swoops by her head and Jungeun looks up to see Haseul. "We cannot meddle with the living, Jungeun. Let go." And Jungeun feels her grip tighten on Jinsol's limp arm, she was so cold. The splashing reaches her ears and she vaugely realises that the man was getting closer to where they floated. "Jungeun." Haseul warns again and Jungeun allows herself one selfish moment. Warm crimson curls around Jinsol's wrist before the man reaches them and the light vanishes.

Safetly away from the commotion by the lake, Jungeun and Haseul sit on stumps in a clearing. A fairy circle, Haseul had told her a long time ago, it is here where your light will be the strongest. A squirrel chitters somewhere in the trees and Jungeun reaches behind her neck, fingers brushing over the sharp ceremic of the owl's beak. There is a softer flurry of feathers and an owl hoots back in greeting when Haseul sings. "It's you." Jungeun whispers, and the eagle owl hoots again, hopping down to where Jungeun sat. Close your eyes, it seemed to say, I have something to show you. So Jungeun closes her eyes and waits. She waits till she can no longer smell the forest floor, till she can no longer feel the humid air, waits till Haseul's melodious song morphs into something else. She opens her eyes to the dark starry sky over the ocean. Except it is not quite her eyes she is seeing out of. The owl hoots, flies down to the deck and Jungeun sees how the crew had all gathered at the side of the ship, her included. The song had not stopped but Jungeun cannot see where it is coming from, changing into something more sinister as the ship sails closer to the fog. The owl hoots again, more urgently this time and the fog thins out just a fraction. But it is enough. Jungeun sees the million jagged rocks that shoot out of the water and the many long haired maidens that sat on the edges, lower halves submered in the water.

Sirens.

The ship sails closer still and Jungeun can suddenly see the sharp teeth that glinted under the light of the moon. Jinsol, she thinks, fear threatening to swallow her whole. And then there is a different light. She watches the sirens hiss at this unfamiliar beam of azure, almost blinding them. Jinsol floats in front of the ship, blue emanating from her like a halo, and the owl circles her once before landing on the stern. Jungeun does not recognise this voice she hears, it promised the wrath of a storm. "This ship is under my protection. Leave." The sirens hiss again before slipping into the brackish water and the fog clears. She hears the shouts of surprise behind her and the ship lurches to the side, steering clear of the rocks. The owl flies towards Jinsol and she smiles weakly, the moonlight passing through her hands. Both of them turn to the ship and Jungeun's gaze immediately lands on herself. She remembers this part. She would make her way to the captain and continue her duties. But Jinsol floats towards her and lands by her side just as she was rubbing her eyes. "This would be the last time I can save you. I'm sorry." Why are you sorry, Jungeun wants to shout, you've saved me all this time. Jinsol laughs as if she can hear her and turns to the owl. "Promise me you'll protect her won't you? Until we meet again?" The owl hoots and when Jungeun raises her head to look up, Jinsol vanishes. Then, the owl dives down to land on Jungeun's shoulder and just like that, the memory breaks.

Jungeun opens her eyes to silence, Haseul had long since stopped singing. The owl still stands by her side and when she turns to it, flies away. "Well? Did you finally remember?" Haseul asks and Jungeun smiles, ignoring the tears falling down her cheeks. "Yeah, I think I did."

Jungeun still goes to the lake everyday, silently treads around its edges and feeds the curious fishes that flock to her warmth. Haseul no longer comes with her now, having decided to give up her freedom to stay with Kahei. Jungeun remembers how pale Haseul had been, her voice had lost its lilt, the evergreens no longer sprouted where she flew. But Jungeun has never been more happy for her friend. She has found a purpose in her long life and Jungeun just knows that if you would ask her to live her life again, Haseul would always choose Kahei, that you would never be able to seperate them. She wishes she could say the same for herself. She watches a family of herons hunt near the foliage, chases away the huge catfishes that get too close to the young ones and smiles as the baby herons cry loudly at her in thanks. Then she sees a terapin with a red spot on its head dangling from one of the adults's beak and almost panics. But the adult heron quickly drops Jin, probably sensing the unstable energy from the forest spirit near her. Jin and Sol, the two baby terapins Jinsol had saved as a teenager, were older now, Jungeun knows their children personally and has named every single one. The eldest was Unmyeong, for the destiny that brought Jinsol to her and for the fate that brought her to Jinsol. The second was called Eunhye because Jinsol had always carried herself with so much grace, on land and in the water. The third was called Uju, because she only saw the universe and its multi-coloured cosmos and burning nebulas whenever she looked into Jinsol's eyes. The youngest was the smallest and had a cracked shell that never mended. She was called Yejeong, because Jungeun's heart was small and broken but she loved Jinsol with it anyway.

Jungeun watches the family of herons take flight, back to the tall trees on the other side of the lake, where the wind still blows and the braches sway precariously every time. But she has seen those trees survive the harshest of storms, so she knows that they will be alright. Yejeong floats up to her and nudges her toes with a small headbut. Jungeun smiles and bends down to pick up the tiny creature. "I wonder how she's doing?" She whispers into the air and lowers Yejeong back into the water. She watches how she swims back to ther family, 6 little heads bobbing about the navy waters before submerging completely. The stones crunch under her bare feet as the water starts rising slowly to her ankles, then up to her knees, till it sloshes around her middle and deeper still, it finally reaches her chest, her blond hair floating behind her like the sunlight in the morning. She pulls her owl mask over her eyes and closes them, inhales deeply and dives. When Jungeun opens her eyes again, she exhales deep aegean and pine and shadow. Her red flares out around her and she sees the tiny cracked shell by its soft ruby glow. So she follows it and surfaces in the middle of the lake, far from the shore. She floats on her back and stares at the sky. The sun was setting, painting the sky with a million shades of red, orange, yellow, pink. Everthing but blue. But it didn't matter, she could feel it running down her hand, lapping at the side of her neck, surrounding her entire soul in its cool embrace. She didn't need to see something she could so thoroughly feel.

Until suddenly, all she could see was blue. Jungeun blinks, flailing about before turning and the blue intensifies before her very eyes. A fish spirit floats behind her, her hair a bleached blond, almost as bright as hers. "Jungeun," She greets and Jungeun sees a tail flick upwards and out of the water, a single scale catching the orange light of the slowly sinking sun, glowing iridescent in her wake. She can't bring herself to move, not while the other spirit's eyes disappear into familiar curved crescents, not when her eyes still follow the drops of water that slides down an angular jaw she could trace in her sleep. Jungeun sees her red reach for the blue, sees purple, and almost cries. But she doesn't and settles for a smile instead.

"Hello Jinsol."

**Author's Note:**

> I struggled with this one, I'm not going to lie. Let's just say motivation is a little hard to find these days. Still, I hope you enjoy this third part to a bigger whole.


End file.
